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& # 39; Oumuamua & # 39; – the first interstellar object found in the solar system – was reclassified into a comet, after scientists began a thorough review since its discovery last year.
By combining data from the Very Large Telescope and other observatories, astronomers have found that the object is moving faster than expected. The measured speed gain is minimal and Oumuamua slows down again due to the attraction of the Sun, but not as fast as predicted by celestial mechanics.
The team, led by Marco Micheli of the European Space Agency, explored several scenarios to explain the faster than expected speed of this particular interstellar visitor.
The most likely explanation is that 'Oumuamua & # 39; evacuates the material from its surface due to solar heating – a behavior known as degassing. The thrust of this ejected material is supposed to provide the small but steady thrust that is sending Oumuamua off the solar system faster than expected – as of June 1, 2018, it travels at about 114,000 kilometers per hour.
Such degassing is a typical behavior of comets and contradicts the earlier classification of Oumuamua as an interstellar asteroid.
"We think it's a weird tiny comet, we can see in the data that its impulse decreases as it moves, the Sun, which is typical of comets," said Micheli.
Usually, when comets are warmed by the sun, they eject dust and gas, which form a cloud of matter – called coma (cometary) – around them. like the characteristic tail. However, the research team was unable to detect any visual evidence of degassing
"We have not seen any dust, coma or tail, which is unusual, we believe that Oumuamua can evacuate coarse and unusual dust particles ". Meech of the University of Hawaii in the United States
The team speculated that perhaps the small grains of dust that adorned the surface of most comets were eroding during Oumuamua's journey into interstellar space, with only remaining grains of dust. these larger particles would not be bright enough to be detected, this would explain the unexpected change in speed of Oumuamua
Not only the hypothetical degassing of Oumuamua is an unsolved mystery, but also its interstellar origin . Originally, the team made new observations on Oumuamua to pinpoint its path, which would probably have allowed it to trace the object up to its star system. kinship. The new findings mean that it will be harder to get this information
(This story was not edited by Business Standard staff and is generated automatically from a syndicated flow.)
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